Courier Mail (Queensland, Australia)
August 3, 2004 Tuesday

Can do crew

by Alison Cotes

ARMENIAN cake is not what I usually eat for breakfast, but as it came
out of the oven the scent of toffee and warm nutmeg reached my nose,
and I knew it was exactly what I needed to follow Jim’s savoury mince
on thick buttered toast ($9.50).

This was delicious, although I did have a long discussion with the
waiter at the Oxford Street Deli about what a variable, rather than
classic, dish this was, and how my mother’s savoury mince was made
with thick gravy, chopped tomato and Worcestershire sauce.

The eponymous Jim puts chopped carrots and sweet corn in his, and
uses thin rather than thick gravy, but at least it doesn’t have peas
in it, and once I’d swallowed my prejudices, I liked it a lot.

The armenian cake was something else, with its crunchy
toffee-textured bottom and moist dark body. Llyn Miller told me that
you mix the butter, sugar and some flour on the bottom of the tin,
then pour the wet mixture on top and let it become its own kind of
upside-down cake.

The deli has recently changed owners, so perhaps it was a little
unfair of me to review it on the fifth day of its re-opening, but
even though there were a few hiccups concerning short-staffing and
running out of some popular dishes, the new team has ensured the food
is better than ever.

Take the service, for example. New owner Charles O’Reilly comes out
to greet every customer (and no, he didn’t know who I was), smiles at
people walking past, makes sure you don’t wait more than 30 seconds
for a menu.

And the food, most of which Miller makes on the premises, offers
bright combinations which work well.

Another breakfast dish, for example, is sweet corn loaf with grilled
mushrooms, crisp pancetta and tomato jam from Jimbour — $7.50 for a
delicious low fat meal. There’s also a bacon, egg and potato pie
served with tomato jam, and french-toasted banana bread with
strawberries (both $7.95), as well as the usual Big Breakfast
($12.75/$8.50), with a Personal Training breakfast of three eggs,
steak, bacon, sausages, tomatoes and mushrooms for $16. You’d need a
big lie-down after that one.

Panini and wraps start at $8.50 — try the ham, spinach and onion
marmalade or the balsamic beef and chutney; and the light meals
include some items from the breakfast menu, including that brilliant
grilled sweet-corn bread with the addition of mixed greens and $1.
There’s a subtle tart of goats cheese, potato and rosemary ($9.50);
some house-made soup of roasted tomatoes, thick and chunky with lots
of smoky flavours served with fresh baguette ($6.50); and toasted
turkish bread with three dips — fetta and wild rocket, eggplant and
pumpkin, and olive tapenade ($7.95).

For lunch another day we shared a $15 platter of hummus, the same
light and tangy olive tapenade, dukkah from Jimbour House, grilled
turkish bread and what was supposed to be whole roasted garlic but
turned out to be a roasted pickled onion because they’d run out of
garlic. That bit didn’t work, so before you order make sure that it
is garlic you’ll be getting — and if you want extra bread, ask in
advance, for we found the four slices weren’t enough to mop up all
the Njoi olive oil and dips.

Another tempting platter for the same price is made up of duck pate,
Jindi camembert, Pyengana cheddar, lavash bread, nuts and tomato jam,
which might be a bit heavy on the protein, so would need some side
salads to lighten it a bit — choose some from the display fridge ($5
each, or three for $9).

Pudding? Of course, because it was again house-made. My mate’s
coconut creme caramel was a welcome variation of the classic version,
while my individual rhubarb and apple crumble, though a generous
dishful, had too much apple in proportion to the rhubarb, and the
crumble top hadn’t been cooked quite long enough.

For children, for $3 there’s fairy bread, vegemite or peanut butter
sandwiches, small fries with tomato sauce, puffy dogs, savoury mince
on toast and fresh fruit salad, with a “kiddychino” thrown in.

OXFORD STREET DELI

Address: 161 Oxford St, Bulimba

Phone: 3399 6222

Hours: open daily, 7am-7pm Sun-Wed, 7am-11pm Thurs-Sat

Liquor status: BYO, corkage $2.50 a person

Prices: breakfast from $6.50 to $16, light meals to $14.95, desserts
and puds $8, children’s meals $3, coffee $3

Owner: Charles O’Reilly

Chef: Llyn Miller

Parking: on-street, but difficult

Wheelchair access: yes

Other: all credit cards except Diners; table service; 15 per cent
surcharge public holidays; air conditioned; shared toilets; noise
level low, ambient piped music

The score

Food: 16

Service: 17

Ambience: 13

Value for money: 16

About the score: 0-5 don’t bother; 6-9 needs serious improvement;
10-12 reasonable; 13-14 good; 15-17 very good; 18-19 exceptional; 20
perfection
From: Baghdasarian